Take a thought-provoking trip into an interesting collection of peculiar, quirky and often surprising factoids about the origins of some common phrases, beliefs, practices and observations from our past.
History of leaving a "tip"
This customary act of leaving a small sum of money as a gratuity for services rendered is said to have originated as early as the 1600's and the word itself (TIP) was derived from the initial letters of the phrase "To Insure Promptness."
In early England, it was common for inns and coffeehouses to have boxes set up for patrons to insert coins for the benefit of the waiters and to encourage good service. These boxes typically had the letters "TIPS" stamped on the sides, which stood for "To Insure Prompt Service."
Why "lb" is the symbol for pound
Have you ever wondered why the weight symbol for pound is "lb" (especially since the word pound contains neither an l nor a b)?
The symbol "lb" is actually a contraction of libra, which is the Latin word for pound. Since plurals in Latin are normally formed by doubling the final letter of the singular word, pounds should properly be written as "lbb."
However, our regular English writing practice of forming plurals by adding an "s" to words has been done so frequently and for so long, it's now regarded as acceptable usage (so it's common to see pounds written as "lbs").
